Duke News Briefs: March 21, 2003

Boston preacher to deliver King lectures

The Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III, a Boston-area pastor who has created programs to combat urban violence, drugs and poverty, will be the featured speaker on April 1 and 2 at the Divinity School's 2003 Martin Luther King Jr. Lectures.

Rivers, who is pastor of the Azusa Christian Community in Dorchester, Mass., has been credited with helping to reduce homicides and other violent crimes in Boston.

Referred to as the "savior of the streets" in a 1998 Newsweek magazine cover story, Rivers co-founded an organization that brought together local churches and police to combat youth violence. He is now co-chair of the National Ten Point Leadership Foundation, which is working to repeat those efforts in 40 of America's worst inner-city neighborhoods.

The King Lectures, which were established nearly 30 years ago and are sponsored by the Office of Black Church Studies and the Black Seminarians Union, focus on preaching as an instrument of social change.

Rivers will present the keynote King lecture at 2:30 p.m., April 1, in the Divinity School's York Chapel on Duke's West Campus. On April 2, Rivers will preach at two worship services: a 10 a.m. service in York Chapel and a 7 p.m. service at Fisher Memorial United Holy Church of America, 420 East Piedmont Ave., Durham. The evening worship service will be preceded by a 5 p.m. community dinner at Fisher Memorial.

The lecture and related worship services are free and the public is invited.

 

For more information about the King Lectures, call the Office of Black Church Studies at 660-3444 or see their Web site at www.divinity.duke.edu/ProjectsAndPrograms/BlackChurch/index.aspx.

 

Policy gift honors Susan King

The Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy will receive $1 million from the Coca-Cola Foundation to fund the Multimedia and Instructional Technology Center at the Sanford Institute's new building.

The gift honors former Duke trustee and Coca-Cola board member Susan Bennett King, who also serves on the Sanford Institute's board of visitors.

Douglas N. Daft, chairman and chief executive officer of the Coca-Cola Company, announced the gift March 18 at the Sanford Institute.

"Susan King has made enduring contributions to the study of leadership," Daft said. "Her experiences in business, public service and academia make her a valuable addition to our company and to the Duke community."

Duke President Nannerl O. Keohane said the gift is a fitting tribute to King.

"Susan Bennett King is an exemplary leader who has served as an outstanding mentor and role model to countless students and professionals," Keohane said. "This gift is a fitting recognition of those roles, as well as her extraordinary service to the Sanford Institute and to the university. We are grateful to the Coca-Cola Foundation for recognizing her service in such a meaningful way."

Design work is under way on the Sanford Institute's new building, to be located across the lawn from the existing facility, which was built in 1994. The new building will double the institute's usable square footage. In addition to the multimedia center, which will be named for King, the building will include classrooms, lecture halls and office space for faculty and staff in several of the institute's centers and programs.

"The Susan Bennett King Multimedia and Instructional Technology Center will significantly enhance the capacity of both the Sanford Institute and Duke University to engage the world of public policy in innovative, interactive and technologically sophisticated ways, providing greater visibility and more extensive impact on leaders and policymakers both domestically and internationally," said Sanford Institute Director Bruce W. Jentleson.

Fuqua honoring entrepreneurship

The Fuqua School of Business, in conjunction with the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE), will hold the inaugural CASE Pioneer in Social Entrepreneurship Award and Lecture at 6:30 p.m. April 1 in Fuqua's Geneen Auditorium.

The CASE lecture and award recognizes leadership and innovation in the field of social entrepreneurship and provides a forum for honorees to share their insights and experiences. The event is free and open to the public.

This year's CASE Award recipient will be social entrepreneur Bill Strickland, president and CEO of the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild (MCG) and Bidwell Training Center, Inc. (BTC) in Pittsburgh. Since Strickland founded MCG in 1968, its programs have helped at-risk youth by using art to teach life skills. Today, MCG is a multidiscipline center for arts and learning that employs the visual and performing arts to educate and inspire urban youth, promote intercultural understanding and educate future leaders on the principles of entrepreneurship.

During Strickland's trip to Durham, he will meet with local community leaders active in the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership to discuss this initiative.

CASE is a research and education center dedicated to promoting social entrepreneurship through a mutual learning process that engages social sector leaders, business school faculty and MBA students.

Dance the ballet

The Duke University Dance Program presents "Ballet Choreolab" to be performed Friday, March 28, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, March 30, at 3 p.m. in the Reynolds Industries Theater, Bryan Center.

This year's concert features Vigil, a new work by Tyler Walters set to portions of Rachmaninov's Vespers for a cappella chorus. The concert also features works by Alyah Baker, T'03 and faculty member M'Liss Dorrance.

Tickets are $12 for the public and $7 for students and are available at the Duke Box Office by calling 684-4444, by visiting www.tickets.duke.edu or at the door of Reynolds Theater beginning one hour before curtain.

Obituaries

Jim Davis, chair of the Department of Neurology at SUNY Stony Brook and a former leading faculty member at Duke Medical Center, died March 14 in an airplane crash near Asheville. He was 63. His wife Francie and daughter Amanda Davis also died in the crash.

Davis was on the Duke faculty from 1972 to 1992, when he joined Stony Brook. He received his B.A. degree in 1961 from Cornell University and M.D. degree in 1965 from Cornell University Medical College. He was a nationally respected researcher whose work focused on how the brain adjusts to, and might recover from, stroke.

The family was accompanying Amanda on a book tour of her acclaimed novel Wonder When You'll Miss Me.

Dr. Davis and his wife are survived by their son, Adam, and daughter-in-law Tracy, their daughter, Joanna, and a brother, Sandy. Funeral services were held Wednesday at Judea Reform Temple in Durham.

Walter Evans Hoadley, a former member of the Duke Board of Trustees died Feb. 19 in Reno, Nevada. He was 86.

A respected economic adviser and a long-time member of the University of Wisconsin's School of Banking faculty and a one-time chief economist for Bank of America, Hoadley served as a Duke trustee from 1974-1994.